Amazon KDP requires you to tell it whether your book contains AI-generated text, images or translations. The question appears on the Content tab, one of the steps in the KDP publishing screens, when you publish a new book or republish an existing one, and it covers three categories you answer separately. Text or images you created yourself and then improved with an AI tool do not have to be declared, and we could find nothing indicating that your answers are shown to readers on your book’s page.
In this article:
- What Counts as AI-Generated vs AI-Assisted on KDP?
- How Do the Three AI Disclosure Fields Work?
- Does Kindle Translate Count as AI-Generated Content?
- Which Cases Are Hardest to Classify?
- Do You Need to Update AI Disclosure on Existing Books?
- What Happens If You Get the Disclosure Wrong?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Counts as AI-Generated vs AI-Assisted on KDP?
Amazon’s test is about how the content in your book was first produced. If an AI tool produced it, Amazon calls that AI-generated and you have to declare it. If you wrote the text or made the images yourself and an AI tool then improved them, Amazon calls that AI-assisted, and you do not have to declare it at all. Translations are treated slightly differently, and are covered below.
Amazon sets out both categories in its Content Guidelines, and the wording is worth reading rather than paraphrasing, because the classification turns on specific words in it. On the first category: “We define AI-generated content as text, images, or translations created by an AI-based tool. If you used an AI-based tool to create the actual content (whether text, images, or translations), it is considered ‘AI-generated,’ even if you applied substantial edits afterwards.”
On the second: “If you created the content yourself, and used AI-based tools to edit, refine, error-check, or otherwise improve that content (whether text or images), then it is considered ‘AI-assisted’ and not ‘AI-generated.’ Similarly, if you used an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas, but ultimately created the text or images yourself, this is also considered ‘AI-assisted’.” Amazon adds: “It is not necessary to inform us of the use of such tools or processes.”
Two consequences follow, and both are easy to read the wrong way round. The first is that the amount of editing afterwards changes nothing about the classification: a chapter drafted by an AI tool and then rewritten from top to bottom is still AI-generated, because the guideline says “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards”. The second is that brainstorming sits on the AI-assisted side, so outlining, structural suggestions and idea generation carry no disclosure, provided you went on to create the text or images yourself. Neither classification is a verdict on your book. Declaring AI-generated content is what Amazon asks you to do, and we could find nothing in its published guidance suggesting a declared book is treated less favourably than an undeclared one.
Used as checkers, grammar and style tools fall on the AI-assisted side, because they edit and error-check content you created. The same application can cross the line when you use a feature that drafts replacement text for you rather than correcting what you wrote, so the question is what the tool did in your manuscript rather than what the tool is called. Amazon is also clear that neither classification transfers responsibility: “You are responsible for verifying that all AI-generated and/or AI-assisted content adheres to all content guidelines, including by complying with all applicable intellectual property rights.”
How Do the Three AI Disclosure Fields Work?
The AI-Generated Content section opens with a single yes-or-no question about whether you used AI tools to create text, images or translations in your book. Answering no completes the section. Answering yes reveals three separate dropdowns, one for each of those categories, and each is set independently, with “none” available in any of them. So an author who generated a cover image and nothing else answers yes at the top, selects an option under images, and leaves text and translations on none.
The three categories are assessed separately rather than as alternatives, so a book can fall into one of them, into two, or into all three. A novel with an AI-generated cover image and entirely human-written text has something to declare under images and nothing under text or translations. Amazon’s guideline is explicit that the images category is not only about the cover: “AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork.”
Each dropdown then asks for two further details: how much of the book the AI produced, some sections or the entire work, and whether you edited that output minimally or extensively. Note what these do and do not do. They describe the AI-generated content you have already declared; they do not move anything back across the line into AI-assisted, which is why heavy editing is recorded here rather than removing the need to declare at all. We could find nothing in Amazon’s published guidance connecting these finer selections to a book’s visibility, its royalty rate or its eligibility for any KDP programme, so the sensible approach is to answer them accurately.
You answer the section again for every format you publish. It appears separately in the Kindle eBook, Paperback and Hardcover workflows, so publishing an ebook and a paperback means completing it twice. That is not simply duplication: the answers can legitimately differ, because an ebook and its print edition do not always carry the same interior images.
Does Kindle Translate Count as AI-Generated Content?
Kindle Translate output does have to be declared. Amazon’s Content Guidelines name translations alongside text and images as a category of AI-generated content, and Amazon describes Kindle Translate itself as an AI-powered translation service. A translation it produces is therefore AI-generated by Amazon’s own definition, and the fact that the tool belongs to Amazon does not exempt it.
Three things about the tool itself shape what you can plan and what you can honestly select. The first is who can use it. The Kindle Translate help page states that “at this time, Kindle Translate is an invite-only beta for eligible KDP eBooks”. A beta is a version released to a limited group while it is still being developed, and invite-only means you cannot simply switch it on; Amazon points authors who want in to an interest list on the same page.
The second is what it produces. Kindle Translate makes ebooks and nothing else: “you cannot use Kindle Translate to create audiobooks or print books.” A translated paperback is a separate job by another route.
The third matters most for the disclosure itself. Amazon states that “direct editing of the translated text is not available at this time”, and that what you get instead is the option to preview a translation before publishing it. That rules out the extensive-editing options in the translations dropdown for a Kindle Translate edition: you publish the translation as produced or you do not publish it, so any editing you did was to the source book rather than to the translation itself.
One further point is specific to this tool and worth knowing before you plan a translated edition. Amazon says that “readers will see language labels for Kindle Translate titles, along with samples to preview the translation.” So a reader browsing the store sees that the title is a translation, and can read a sample of it before buying. That labelling comes from Kindle Translate itself rather than from anything you select on the disclosure form, and it is the only reader-facing signal of this kind we could find anywhere in the process.
A machine translation from any other service is treated the same way under Amazon’s definition: if a tool produced the translated text, the translation is AI-generated, and editing it afterwards does not change that. The text dropdown is a separate question about the book’s own text, so if you wrote that yourself and it contains no AI-generated passages, it stays on none whatever the translations dropdown says.
Which Cases Are Hardest to Classify?
Sorting a straightforward book into text, images and translations is easy enough, and it gets harder at the edges. Four situations are worth working out before you reach the form, because each of them has an answer that is not the obvious one.
AI-Generated Cover Art
An image generator used for the cover puts you in the images category, and editing the output in Photoshop or Canva afterwards does not change that, for the same reason substantial edits do not change the classification of text. Interior illustrations and diagrams follow the same rule, since Amazon’s guideline names cover and interior images together.
Stock Images That Were Generated by AI
Stock libraries carry AI-generated images alongside photographs, and labelling varies between them. Amazon’s test asks what produced the content, not whether you were the one who ran the tool, so a licensed image that a generator produced is AI-generated when it appears in your book even though you bought it rather than prompted it. Where the library does not say how an image was made, you are deciding with incomplete information, and the closing section of this article explains why that decision is easier than it looks.
Book Descriptions and Other Metadata
The disclosure form asks about the content of the book: text, images and translations. Your book description, subtitle and keywords are metadata, the information about the book rather than the book itself, and we could find no separate AI disclosure requirement covering them in Amazon’s published guidance. That is not the same as metadata sitting outside the rules. The Content Guidelines open by saying “these guidelines apply to book content, including title, cover art, and product description”, so a description still has to meet the same standards on accuracy and customer experience as the rest of the listing, however it was written.
Mixed Workflows
A book can be part-written by hand and part-drafted with a tool: a non-fiction author who wrote the book but generated a technical appendix, for instance. Any AI-generated text in the book puts you in the text category, and the scope selection is where you record that it was some sections rather than the whole work. We could find no size in Amazon’s guideline below which AI-generated text stops counting, so the appendix is declared however short it is. This is about text an AI tool produced; a sentence you wrote and a checker tidied is the other category and is not counted here.
Do You Need to Update AI Disclosure on Existing Books?
Amazon ties the requirement to an act of publishing rather than to a book sitting on sale. Its wording is that it requires disclosure “when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP”. Read against that, a title you published before the requirement was introduced and have not touched since is not one Amazon asks you to go back and amend.
The moment you republish, though, the form applies to the book as it stands now rather than as it stood when you first uploaded it. If the original edition contained no AI-generated content and the revised edition carries an AI-generated cover, you declare it at that point, in the Content tab of the republishing workflow. Our guide to updating a book on Amazon after publishing covers which changes send a title back through Amazon’s review.
Amazon asks the question per title, including for each book in a series. If one title in a series has an AI-translated edition and the others do not, only that one has anything to declare under translations. For how the titles themselves are grouped, see our guide to setting up a book series page.
What Happens If You Get the Disclosure Wrong?
The AI disclosure sits inside Amazon’s Content Guidelines, so getting it wrong is a guidelines matter and carries the consequences Amazon sets out there for any breach. Its own description of how it enforces them: “We invest significant time and resources to enforce these guidelines, using a combination of machine learning, automation, and dedicated teams of human reviewers. We’ll reject or remove content that does not adhere to these guidelines and promptly investigate any book when notified of potential noncompliance.” The same page says Amazon may also “request additional information relating to your book before it’s available for sale”.
What follows a removal is set out in the same paragraph: “If we remove a title, we let the author, publisher, or selling partner know and they can appeal our decision.” So a removal is not silent, and there is a defined route to contest it. How often an appeal succeeds is a separate question, and we could find nothing published on it.
Set against that risk is what disclosing costs, which appears to be nothing. The answers go to Amazon rather than to the store: we could find no indication in its published guidance that they are displayed on the product detail page, that a declared book is ranked, surfaced or paid differently from an undeclared one, or that any badge is added to a listing. The one reader-facing label we found anywhere near this is the language label on Kindle Translate editions described above, which comes from that tool rather than from the form.
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The risk runs one way, and that is what makes the unclear cases easy. Declaring something you did not strictly have to carries no consequence anyone has been able to identify, while failing to declare something you should have puts the title at risk of removal. So where a case is genuinely ambiguous, such as a stock image whose origin the library does not state, declare it. For everything else, return to the question Amazon’s definition turns on, which is about the content rather than about you: was this text, image or translation produced by an AI tool, or produced by a person and then improved with one?
Frequently Asked Questions
Does using Grammarly or ProWritingAid require KDP AI disclosure?
No, not when you are using them to check your own writing. Amazon classes content you created yourself and then edited, refined or error-checked with an AI tool as AI-assisted rather than AI-generated, and says explicitly that it is not necessary to inform it of such use. The same applies to AI spell checkers built into word processors. What can change the answer is a feature that drafts new text for you rather than correcting what you wrote, because then the tool produced the words.
Is the KDP AI disclosure visible to readers on my book’s Amazon page?
Not as far as we could establish. Your answers on the AI-Generated Content form go to Amazon, and nothing in its published guidance indicates they are shown on the product detail page or anywhere else a customer can see them. One separate thing is visible: Amazon labels Kindle Translate editions in the store so readers know a title is a translation, but that label comes from the tool rather than from your disclosure answers.
Can I edit a Kindle Translate translation before publishing it?
No. Amazon states that direct editing of the translated text is not available at this time, and that you can preview a translation before deciding whether to publish it. That means the choice is to publish the translation as produced or not at all, which is also why the “extensive editing” option in the translations dropdown does not describe a Kindle Translate edition.
Do I need to fill out the AI disclosure separately for my ebook and paperback?
Yes, once for each format you publish. The AI-Generated Content section appears separately in the Kindle eBook, Paperback and Hardcover workflows, so an ebook and a paperback mean completing it twice. This is not simply duplication: the answers can legitimately differ between formats, because an ebook and its print edition may not carry the same interior images.
What if I used AI to generate ideas but wrote all the final text myself?
That is AI-assisted, and no disclosure is required. Amazon’s guideline addresses the case directly: using an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas while ultimately creating the text or images yourself is AI-assisted rather than AI-generated. Outlining, structural suggestions and topic ideas all sit on that side, provided the sentences and pictures in the finished book are yours.
Does substantial rewriting make AI-generated text count as AI-assisted?
No. Amazon says content created by an AI tool is AI-generated “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards”, so the proportion you rewrote does not move a chapter from one category to the other. The scope and editing dropdowns are where the rewriting gets recorded: they let you describe how much of the book was AI-generated and how heavily you edited it, inside a declaration you have already made.
